Pressure defense puts Carbon in second place

Carbon's Tabby Cummins battles with a Lady Spartan as the two come down the floor. The game was a long and hard one for the Lady Dinos as they had a hard time handling Emery's press and seldom got a clear look at the basket. Carbon lost at home to Emery 61-31.

After playing an almost perfect game against North Sanpete on Tuesday night in Mount Pleasant, the Carbon Lady Dinos returned home with their heads held high, tied for first place in Region 8 and a real shot at taking sole possession of the top spot on Friday night against Emery.

Afterall, they had just beaten the Lady Hawks 56-51, were 4-0 in region play, were going to play at home and are the defending 3A state champions.

Unfortunately for the Carbon girls, Emery didn't care about any of that. They came into the Dinogym on Thursday night, loaded for bear after losing both regular season games to Carbon year after year for a long time. They were ready to play their game.

And they played Carbon's too. They took a page from Carbon Coach Bruce Bean's book and put the pressure on full court, in a relentless fashion, keeping Carbon from seeing the basket a good deal of the time.

That resulted in a 61-31 win for the Emery girls.

Carbon's foray into Sanpete County earlier in the week showed a balance on the Carbon team. Jamie King led the Lady Dinos with 13 points, while Megan Garvin and Meesha Rasmussen put in 11 points a piece.

But on Thursday night, the balance was still there, but the shots weren't. King led the team with 11 but no one else scored in double figures.

Meanwhile Emery liked the three, the medium jumper and the garbage baskets.

But what they liked the best was the press.

Throughout the game Emery scored on turnover after turnover amazing a 23-12 lead at the half.

In the third quarter, Carbon only got the ball to their end of the floor once in a span of four minutes. That inability was reflected big time in the scoring as Emery put in 20 points and Carbon only was able to score six.

Now the Lady Dinos must wait a few weeks for a rematch and during that time they have a chance to hold onto second place and then try and tie with Emery in the last game of the regular season. That is unless either Emery or Carbon lose another game, but looking at the league that is doubtful. Carbon can go to the state playoffs either tied for first or in a solid second, but it is not hard to imagine which of those they want.

Mostly they will probably want revenge for Thursday nights beating on Feb. 7 when they face Emery at the Spartan Center.

Meanwhile they have another game at home on Friday, against Granite and then next Tuesday when they play Delta at Delta.